Opinions and views from expert CFOZone members.

Although corporate social responsibility and sustainability are big buzzwords right now, and have been for some time, actual efforts to implement sustainable practices within the supply chain have not been a priority for many companies over the past few years.

This is, of course, hardly surprising. Given the vast array of changing regulations, increased compliance requirements, and the need to simply focus on basics as markets floundered through some of the toughest economic conditions of the past century, any projects not deemed either necessary for compliance purposes or able to show a very quick return on investment were understandably put on hold.

Larger companies are much more likely to have a formal sustainability strategy than smaller companies. But, the number one reason both groups have a policy in place is because they are required to have one.

In addition, US-based companies in general lag their global peers when it comes to treating sustainability issues in general.

A new study out by the UK's Accounting Standards Board (ASB) holds insights on analyzing and explaining internal corporate capital that could prove useful to US and global companies.

The study, which evaluated the quality of capital management disclosures at companies reporting to the ASB, found that although some firms offered thorough analysis of their capital resources, the majority of companies were missing some or most of the information that would "convey meaningfully how they assess capital and how they manage it over the medium to long term."

The US Appeals Court overturned the securities fraud conviction of the former chief financial officer at Network Associates (now called McAfee), who had been sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

In reversing the lower court's decision in the case involving Prabhat Goyal,, the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court rebuked the prosecutor and the judge in the case, asserting "The government shouldn't have brought charges unless it had clear evidence of wrongdoing, and the trial judge should have dismissed the case when the prosecution rested and it was clear the evidence could not support a conviction."

Private company accounting standards could end up being vastly different than their public equivalents, finally providing such companies with clear guidelines reflecting their distinct business landscape.

The standards-setting board for private company accounting standards-or Little GAAP as it is known-came one step closer to reality this week as the panel set up to design it fleshed out a number of details in a draft proposal to the Financial Accounting Foundation-parent organization to the FASB.

The former chief financial officer and founder and former CEO of Vitesse Semiconductor were charged for their roles in an accounting and securities fraud scheme.

Louis Tomasetta, the co-founder and former CEO and former CFO and Executive Vice President Eugene Hovanec , were charged with securities fraud, making false entries in the books and records of a corporation, making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and conspiracy for their roles in a scheme to manipulate Vitesse's reported financial statements, according to Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The former chief financial officer of an Oklahoma energy company was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in a fraud.

David Grose, who served as CFO of Quest Energy Partners LP from 2004 to 2008, was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release upon his release from prison, forfeit $1 million in assets, and pay $1 million in restitution to the company.

The Delaware Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling that would have made it easier for would-be hostile acquirers to wrest control of a company's board of directors.

The ruling is also a blow to Air Products and Chemicals, which has been trying to take over Airgas. At Airgas' annual meeting in September, Air Products elected its slate of three directors to the Airgas board and tried to circumvent Airgas' classified board by proposing a bylaw amendment that would have allowed it to elect three more directors to the board in January--just four months after the 2009 annual meeting.

Although chief financial officers, risk managers, and other corporate executives recognize the importance of strategic risk management, many are as yet unable to put it into full practice and linking it effectively with overall corporate strategy is a still-elusive goal.

This blog has long contended that one of the benefits of the financial crisis is that governments around the world are bending over backwards to improve the conditions in which private sector companies do business. On Monday we reported on the UN's Doing Business report which corroborated this view with comprehensive figures from around the world.

But it is not just emerging markets. The UK's new coalition government has made being business friendly a cornerstone of its economic policy from the day it came to power last May. A new tax rule announced on Monday shows how serious the government is in not only attracting new companies into the country but also in persuading British companies to stay and not move to lower tax jurisdictions as so many have already done.